COP websites emitting 10 times more carbon than average webpage, analysis of archives suggests

New Delhi, Nov 10 (PTI) Websites created for the UN Conference of the Parties (COP) emit up to 10 times more carbon, compared to an average internet page, suggests an analysis of web archives.

Since 2009, pages of the COP website have increasingly used content, including multimedia, that require a higher computing power, researchers from the UK's University of Edinburgh said.

The team analysed data from web archives, including the 'Internet Archive', to assess how the carbon footprint of COP websites changed over 30 years.

Findings published in the journal PLOS Climate indicate that between 1995, the year of the first COP, and 2024, average emissions from COP websites have increased by more than 13,000 per cent.

The study comes during this year's ongoing COP30 in Belem, Brazil, scheduled to go on until November 21.

"The digital footprint of websites, and how they have grown over time, deserves further scrutiny. In this innovative use of web archives as a data source to measure how websites have expanded, we chose first to look at the COP conferences themselves, given they are the focus of so much discussion on climate change," said author Melissa Terras from the Institute for Design Informatics at Edinburgh College of Art.

"Our research shows that the carbon cost of digital presence is often overlooked by even those who care about and are meant to protect the environment. We hope that our recommendations, and our tool, can help institutions identify and tackle this issue," Terras said.

Website views during 1997's COP3, the first year with available data, emitted the equivalent of 0.14 kilograms, roughly the amount of carbon that a mature tree can absorb in two days, the researchers found.

However, 116.85 kilograms of carbon emitted by visits to the COP29 homepage alone would require 10 mature trees a full year to get absorbed, which the researchers said is an increase of more than 83,000 per cent.

The team added that while it is too early to calculate carbon emissions from the COP30 website, it is not hosted on verified renewable energy infrastructure.

Emissions were found to remain relatively low until COP14 in 2008, with a site emitting the equivalent of 0.02 grams of carbon for every page viewed.

However, COP15 onwards, emissions have risen sharply, with a page emitting the equivalent of more than 2.4 grams of carbon per visit on average, and some emitting substantially more, the researchers said.

The average website emits the equivalent of 0.36 grams of carbon per page view, they said.

The researchers said that while the increase in emissions is partly a consequence of a huge growth in computing power and internet use -- the internet now accounts for up to three per cent of all emissions -- the carbon footprint of COP sites is still significantly higher than the average webpage.

The team suggested recommendations for reducing the digital footprint of websites, such as placing strict limits on page sizes, optimising site layouts and hosting websites on servers powered by renewable energy.

The study's approach of using a bespoke computer code that has been made freely available could be used to assess the historical environmental impact of other internet pages too, they added. PTI KRS KRS KSS KSS